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Parrot: For Real

Posted by Hemos on from the and-you-thought-it-was-a-joke dept.

Thanks to Pudge of Slashteam for pointing out that very early version of Parrot has been released. You may recall Parrot from The April Fool's joke - but it's coming to life.

30 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Parrot-Script by ksb · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can almost feel someone contemplating a sever side module for apache using this as an embedded web page script.

  2. This is just so wrong that it's bound to succeed. by plover · · Score: 3, Funny
    A language with the readability of Perl and the maintainability of Python. I hope they threw in the "significant filename" convention from Java while they were at it.



    Yikes. I think I just described C#.



    John

    --
    John
  3. Dead Parrot by Root+Down · · Score: 3, Funny

    I am still not convinced that this Parrot would voom if you put 5000 volts through it.

  4. Re:This is just so wrong that it's bound to succee by Zigg · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wait a minute. I thought that Parrot (the package, not the April Fool's Joke) was supposed to be the common VM for Perl and Python, or at least that's what I gathered from the mailing list postings I read about it some time back.

    The joke was about merging the syntax from the languages, but the real Parrot is about the VM. I think. :-) The details are really sketchy, and I don't have time to look at the code today (esp. since I'm on Solaris and I doubt it'd even compile).

  5. Re:I'm guessing... by pudge · · Score: 2

    Actually no.

    The guy who orchestrated the April Fool's Joke is the pumpking for it. The idea of them working together was a pipe dream that influenced the joke.

  6. well... not exactly by __aahlyu4518 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Unlike the joke, it is not a combined language !!! It started as an idea as a 'shared bytecode/runtime environment that could be used by both Perl 6 and a future version of Python'
    Right now it is a interpreter that does assembly to bytecode only for now as far as I can tell...

    1. Re:well... not exactly by rubicelli · · Score: 5, Informative
      Please.

      "Parrot" is the development name for the internals of Perl 6, notably the interpreter. See, e.g., this explanation. Any similarity to a certain April Fools joke is probably intentional, but isn't to be taken literally.

    2. Re:well... not exactly by __aahlyu4518 · · Score: 2, Informative
      That's right... Here's another link. It's called 'Perl 6 and Parrot Redux' (links from 2001/08/14, so not very new as well).
      "Basically, the interpreter is going to be called Parrot and we're going to see whether or not we can actually make it run code from other languages"

      So what I said... nothing like the joke.
    3. Re:well... not exactly by seanw · · Score: 2

      yah yah your comment is very beautiful and special. now stop being so damn excited or I'll mod you down to (-1, Noisy).

    4. Re:well... not exactly by Glytch · · Score: 2

      You've got a sub-100k UID, you've never been moderated up, and you're not posting at -1?

      Wow.

  7. So which is this? by BIGJIMSLATE · · Score: 2

    Art imitating life, or life imitating art?

  8. I wasn't expecting Parrot by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 4, Funny

    Guido:I wasn't expecting Parrot...

    Larry: Nobody expects Parrot! Our chief trait is laziness...laziness and impatience...impatience and laziness...Our two traits are laziness and impatience...and hubris...Our *three* main traits are laziness, impatience, and hubris...and a ridiculous habit of quoting JR Tolkien...Our *four*..no... *Amongst* our traits...are such elements as laziness, impatience...I'll come in again.

  9. Link with comments by PhilHibbs · · Score: 2

    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/03/28/174223 7&mode=thread

  10. Re:This is just so wrong that it's bound to succee by tconnors · · Score: 3, Redundant

    Wait a minute. I thought that Parrot (the package, not the April Fool's Joke) was supposed to be the common VM for Perl and Python, or at least that's what I gathered from the mailing list postings I read about it some time back.

    Good thing this is not the real language. Cause I just looked at the test?.pasm files, and thought for a second (despite the name *.?asm) "Hey! This looks like assembler. How the hell can this be a step forward!?" But it is just a VM, and indeed it is sort of assembler language, but this is not what the end programmer sees.

    The joke was about merging the syntax from the languages, but the real Parrot is about the VM. I think. :-) The details are really sketchy, and I don't have time to look at the code today (esp. since I'm on Solaris and I doubt it'd even compile).

    It's only perl - sure it should... "compile". Just did a quick runthrough myself....

    TimC.

  11. Re:Who is behind Parrot? by jekk · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's likely to be the result of mis-use of Guido's time machine.

  12. 100% compression by tplayford · · Score: 3, Funny

    When is someone going to implement that 100% data compression sysem I heard so much about around April time? I'm sure it would be very usefull! Just think about all the possibilities!

    1. Re:100% compression by FreeMath · · Score: 2

      LZIP featured here. Offers the ability to compress files down to 0% of their original size.

      --
      This sig intentionally left blank.
  13. What's the world coming to? by quartz · · Score: 3, Funny

    As a long time Perl zealot, I'd like to take this opportunity to vigorously protest this move. Posts on both Perl and Python mailing lists suggest that there *is* going to be some compromise at language syntax level to accomodate the common runtime. From the Perl perspective it's like "well, Perl 6 was going to be fully OO anyway, so what difference are going to make a few concession in syntax"? Well, I strongly object! I mean, I spent so much time learning Perl so I could be different and write cool obfuscated "Japh" sigs, and NOW they're going to make Perl look and feel just like every other C# on the planet? I've had it! If THAT's gonna get implemented, I vow to completely abandon my Monk robe and to only code in Visual Basic! Brother Monks, I urge you to join me in my protest so that the despicable traitor Larry Wall will see the error of his ways and will hopefully change his mind about this Frankensteinian abomination! United we will succeed!

    :-)

  14. More links by PhilHibbs · · Score: 5, Informative

    ESR on encouraging the bytecode merge ( http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2001-J uly/016406.html )

    use.perl.org links ( http://use.perl.org/search.pl?topic=parrot )

    1. Re:More links by abde · · Score: 2
      More generally, the fact remains that Perl's user/developer base is
      still much larger than ours. Successful unification would co-opt a
      lot of that energy for Python.


      Unification? It reminds me of Vulcan and Romulus :)
      --
      Don't blame me - I voted for Howard Dean. http://dean2004.blogspot.com
  15. Someone didn't get the joke by digital_freedom · · Score: 5, Funny

    Parrot was an April Fools' gag.

    This is what happens when jokes go bad. I hope the /. editors consider this carefully next April. Otherwise we might have a story about Bill Gates & Bill Joy collaborating to produce a new proprietary rock-solid server GUI.

    Windows + Sun = Greenhouse

    Sheesh... Then someone will implement it...

  16. Parrot is part of perl6 by Ars-Fartsica · · Score: 2, Redundant

    I believe this is the low-level "assembly language" of the proposed new perl VM.

  17. Re:Who is behind Parrot? by Tikiman · · Score: 2, Informative
    In other words, is larry wall and the python guy collaborating efforts to bring us a new language derived from both? or is this some hackers bringing an actual product out of the joke.

    This is the real thing, see http://dev.perl.org/perl6/

  18. Parrot for Palm by iCharles · · Score: 2, Interesting
    There is Pippy, Python for Palm, and rumors of a Perl for Palm (both are supported on CE).


    Perhaps, though, making a rock-solid Parrot-for-Palm would be a way to get a good implmentation of both languages for Palm. The developers could share with each other, and the OS-specific routines could be held in common (accessed via specific "header files" (modules, etc.)).


    Hmmmmm....

  19. April fools becoming real? by Ed+Avis · · Score: 5, Informative

    I believe there was an April Fool's joke many years ago about a 16-bit version of the ARM processor called THUMB. But then only a relatively short time later ARM Ltd announced they were indeed working on a 16-bit frontend to the ARM (basically a new instruction decoder), and now the 'Thumb instruction decoder' is a standard part of many ARM family CPUs.

    How many other things started out as an April Fool's day joke and then actually got implemented?

    --
    -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
  20. Re:Oh just great by connorbd · · Score: 2

    Okay, CMU-CL... and then someone writes a Dylan front end for it.

    Eh, religious wars... Lisp is a good language, no doubt. It's one of the two or three oldest still in current use (does it in fact predate both Fortran and Cobol?), but all those parens...

    /Brian

  21. Re:history of language by connorbd · · Score: 2

    I had actually heard Lisp was the oldest, but thanks...

    /Brian

  22. Visual Seasick by jdfox · · Score: 5, Funny
    In a related development, Microsoft has announced the immediate availability, in Q2 2002, of their new .Net hybrid of Visual C++ and Visual Basic, to be known as Visual Seasick.

    Visual Seasick will offer all the elegance and ease-of-use of C++, fused with the raw power and scalability of Visual Basic.

    Analyst Larry Bribewell of the respected IT Research firm Rentrag Group, predicts big things for this de facto industry-standard language: "the first release, version 3.1, looks rock solid. We predict [0.8] it will overtake Parrot in quarterly revenue by Q1 2002."
    (c) 2001, ZDnot.

  23. Yes, Parrot. But not that parrot. by smallpaul · · Score: 3, Informative
    It is the intent of the Perl 6 folks that Perl 6's VM be usable as an engine for interpreting multiple languages. This was always their intent. In order to make that wish a little more public they've decided to call their VM "parrot" (after the April fools joke). But at this point nobody has seriously looked at porting Python to parrot because it is not very mature yet. Furthermore, many Python people are skeptical that Perl 6 will live up to its long feature set so nobody is putting eggs in that basket yet.

    There is no sense in which the languages will be merged. If moving to Parrot required a substantial change in Python it just wouldn't happen. If Python on Parrot was less efficient than the current Python interpreter, that would also be a major issue.

  24. Re:... other... April Fool's day joke... implement by ScoLgo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The one part of the spec that apparently has been implemented...

    SPECIAL FEATURES
    Because of the employment of the Signetics' proprietary Sanderson-Rabbet Channel the 25120 will provide 50% higher speed than you will obtain.

    --
    "Michael, I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing - and it was everything that I thought it could be."